Roster round up: Who should stay? Who should go?

There are a few other blogs (NOHS, WIIM, WOAW) that are analyzing player performance and whether or now they met expectations. These are all good reads and I encourage you to read them. I particularly like the unique awards dished out by WOAW.

I kept trying to write about last season, but I couldn’t create a clean and coherent article. Part of the reason was that I just got this gig a few weeks ago and before that I wasn’t too overly concerned with the minutia of every minute of every game.

The article that kept rattling around in the back of my head calling out “write me! write me!” was one about free agency. Who’s contract is up? What’s the salary cap look like? Who can we sign? So here it is, I’m going to pretend I’m Ken Holland and make a few roster changes.

This is going to be a series of articles so keep checking back for updates. Also, feel free to use the comments section to express your agreement or to call me a jack ass.

Here is the current roster picture as best as I could assemble…

FORWARDS

No.	Player Name	Pos.	Age	Salary	Status
8	Justin Abdelkader	LW	22	710 K	Restricted free agent
11	Daniel Cleary	LW	30	3.0 M	Signed until 2013
13	Pavel Datsyuk	C	30	6.7 M	Signed until 2014
17	Patrick Eaves	RW	25	500 K	Restricted free agent
18	Kirk Maltby	LW	36	750 K	Unrestricted free agent
20	Drew Miller	LW	25	525 K	Restricted free agent
24	Brad May	LW	37	500 K	Unrestricted free agent
26	Juri Hudler	C	25	3.0 M	Signed until 2012
29	Jason Williams	C	28	1.5 M	Unrestricted free agent
33	Kris Draper	C	38	1.25 M	Signed until 2011
40	Henrik Zetterberg	LW	28	7.75 M	Signed until 2021
42	Mattias Ritola	C	22	535 K	Restricted free agent
43	Darren Helm	C	22	500 K	Restricted free agent
44	Todd Bertuzzi	RW	34	1.5 M	Unrestricted free agent
48	Cory Emmerton	C	21	500 K	Signed until 2011
51	Valtteri Filppula	C	25	3.5 M	Signed until 2013
93	Johan Franzen	C	29	5.0 M	Signed until 2020
96	Tomas Holmstrom	LW	36	2.25 M	Unrestricted free agent

DEFENSE

No.	Player Name	Pos.	Age	Salary	Status
3	Andreas Lilja	D	33	1.25 M	Unrestricted free agent
5	Nicklas Lidstrom	D	39	7.45 M	Unrestricted free agent
14	Derek Meech	D	25	500 K	Restricted free agent
22	Brett Lebda	D	27	850 K	Unrestricted free agent
23	Brad Stuart	D	29	3.75 M	Signed until 2013
28	Brian Rafalski	D	35	6.0 M	Signed until 2013
37	Doug Janik	D	29	500 K	Unrestricted free agent
46	Jakub Kindl	D	22	765 K	Restricted free agent
52	Jonathan Ericsson	D	25	1.25 M	Signed until 2012
55	Niklas Kronwall	D	28	3.50 M	Signed until 2013

Here are the totals:
Forwards: 39.970 Million
Defense: 25.815 Milion
Goal: 1.90 Million

That’s a grand total of $67.685 million. There is a bit of magic that is performed to get the salary cap within limits. The actual salary cap hit is taken by multiplying the player’s salary by the percentage of the season they were actually on the payroll.

Hudler’s salary is on the books at 3.0M, but he played 0% so no salary cap hit.

Leino’s salary this past season was 825k and he played about 2/3 of the season so his salary cap hit was in the neighborhood of 544K and the Flyers took the other 280k.

Now that I’ve laid the groundwork, I’m going to start off talking about the unrestricted free agents and then restricted free agents. I’m going to wrap up discussing who is available from other teams and after I make my cuts who I think we should try to acquire.

Next up: Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, and Maltby

Part 2: Roster round up: Lidstrom’s fate

Topics: Andreas Lilja, Brad May, Brad Stuart, Brett Lebda, Brian Rafalski, Cory Emmerton, Daniel Cleary, Darren Helm, Derek Meech, Doug Janik, Drew Miller, Henrik Zetterberg, Jakub Kindl, Jason Williams, Johan Franzen, Jonathan Ericsson, Juri Hudler, Justin Abdelkader, Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, Mattias Ritola, Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Patrick Eaves, Pavel Datsyuk, Todd Bertuzzi, Tomas Holmstrom, Valtteri Filppula

Timothy McIlhiny

Mike I see 6 that maybe should automatically think about leaving. Hint Derek Meech, Doug Janik, Brad May, Patrick Eaves, Cory Emmerton, Darren Helm. There will be many choices too. I would try to acquire Ryan Miller in goal. Mr. Osgood may retire.
http://octopusthrower.com Brian Harwell

Ozzie may retire after his contract expires (2011 I think), but if Detroit signed Miller then Howard would be the backup and I don’t see that happening. Miller is too good to sign as a backup and Howard had such an incredible rookie year I think he has earned a place on the roster for 2011. In short, I think goal is set for next year.
http://yardbarker.com jmoore

Tim and Brian are both on drugs. Helm and Bert should stay and the Wings will do everything to see that he does. There is no way in this world that Ryan Miller is coming here. Two goalies already on contract and one in the running for the rookie of the year. The Wings need to get rid of a number of players and add some grit to the team. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Fils cannot be continually run at. We need some every day players that will answer the bell when these guys are run at. I see these other teams playing with a great deal of emotion. The Wings need some of that and to just play with some heart. What I am hearing but do not like is. We have all the pieces here already. We don’t have all the pieces and the playoffs proved it.
http://octopusthrower.com Brian Harwell

I never said Miller was coming here…in fact I said “I don’t see that happening”. I don’t think we’ll see any changes in goal, for good reason, no changes are needed.